Dinner for 4

In class, we have different dinner groups. I think this was a chance to invite our friends and to know them closely.
I was in the same dinner group with Christiane, Lasse and Laura P.  And these pictures were taken in our dinner ;) I cooked for them "et sote", in English it is sauteed meat, rice and carrot salad. I guess they liked dinner but who knows the truth :)))
It was very good evening. We ate, talked about school, lessons, our culture, our friends etc... We took a few photos and sent them to our teachers and they printed and posted them.
Thanks guys for coming, we had a nice evening. I always remember that night ;)

Practical Visits

In September, we went some places. The purpose of these visits is to give us an impression of Danish professional work in practise.
Our teachers splited into a few groups and each group had to go two places. Groups must go to one of these places in the morning and for the other, they must go afternoon.
My group friends are Kinnie, Paula, Laia, Tanja and Giovanna. Our practical visits places are  a nursery and a children's home.
Firstly, we went to nursery. The place is very close to our school and thanks to Tanja and Kinnie, we could find it easily. The place is small and very nice. There is two rooms and each of one has eleven children. In each room, there are two pedagogs and an assistant. It is normal because four kids need one pedagog. The place is not private. Children's age is changing between ten months and two years old. There is no special plan what children will do. Generally, kids do what they want to do. If they want to play, they play; if they want to sleep, they sleep and so on... Sometimes children do not want to be interested in someting so pedagogs help them in these situations. The nursery open at 07:00 o'clock and close at 17:00 o'clock. Parents come for their children between 14:00 and 17:00 o'clock. During the day, kids have breakfast, lunch and also snacks. There is sleep time and time can be different for each child. Neighbourd of nursery is ver good place and there are educated and rich people.
Children learn a lot of things here such as how to be social, how to behave to their friends etc... Normally nursery can be more crowded but this place is not and it is an advantage for pedagogs. Because if the nursery is too crowded, pedagogs can not be interested in all children very well.

Secondly, we went to children's home. In there, there are 12 kids. Normally, this number can be changed between 8-14. Till 18 years old, children can stay here. Every kid has own room and the place looks like a "normal" house with its kitchen, bathroom, living room etc... Children can go to their parents' houses at the weekends. Children know this house is only for them, this place is their second home and they have two family. Breakfast time depends on school time and most of them go to the normal school but some of them go to the special school. Older children go to school by bike or by bus but youngers go with an adult. At 17:30 all children have to be at home. After dinner time, kids must do homework. Normally two pedagogs work together but if they need, more than two can work. There is a tea time in the afternoon (after coming from school) and children and pedagogs talk about day. Pedagogs, teachers never talk about their families because children can think if I tell something about my parents, they will do bad things to them so in order to prevent this, pedagogs never talk about parents but of course a kid wants to talk, they can talk privately. All children have a diary and they write their life on it. The time how many years children stay there changes from one to the other. Some of them stay there one year, some of them stay there ten years. Pedagogs never send a child from children's home, firstly they find a new place to stay and then child leave there.

According to plan, after we visited these places, we must prepare a presentation about them and  also write an assignment from each visit.

When I compare these applications to my country, I can see lots of differentness. In Turkey we do not have nursery. Generally a person from family for instance grandmother takes care of child. And some of parents look for care worker. On the other hand some mothers do not prefer to work untill their child goes to the kindergarden.
We have children's home in Turkey, too however in Turkey, working of these houses is ver different. In Denmark these homes work like a "normal" home but in Turkey, these houses are like a dormitory and a lot of children leave together so, unfourtunately, they can not feel these house like a real home.

Next time, we will go practical visits again and I think they will be good for us. I liked to see them before and now I am sure to be glad again ;)

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet...

When I came to Denmark, I decided to write my experiences in a blog like a diary. I only thought it will be cool :) and I did not know that we will prepare a blog yet. Then I wrote this opinion on my twitter account. One of my friends from Turkey replied me with a little jealous message :) But after this day our teachers said us you must prepare a blog and write your opinions and experiences in Denmark, it was a surprise for me because me and my "jealous" frined talked it about a lot and he said I wish there was a problem with your blog [of course this is a joke between him and me :))] Therefore when I heard this blog homework, I thought that "Yes, he got what he wants" because if something is compulsory for students, it is hard to do it :)) It is students' rule :-P And then of course, I couldn't write as I want. I thougt I can write on my blog every day but I learned it is impossible :) because I am trying to get used to Denmark, I am trying to learn culture of Denmark, to meet new people, to see new places and so on...

I think this blog will be a great remembrance for me because sometimes we can forget some details, some nice time but thanks to blog, even if I forget some of them, I will remember again when I read here.

Anddd if you want to follow me on twitter, this is my account:

My Twitter Account

http://twitter.com/#!/_LaLe_

Project: Drop Outs

Our group for this project is Gaelle, Jaap, Kat and me. Firstly, I want to thanks my group not only for project but also for all good time. [thank you, guysss!!! :))]

The project lesson is "Professional Work with Children and Young People in a European Perspective".  Before we started the project, teachers wanted us to write our wishlists in order to know our interests. Then groups were constituted by teachers.

In our first meeting, we tried to decide our focus and although our wishlists were very different from each other, we could decide subject easily. Then we prepared our contract. According to our contract, if someone doesn't come to meeting or does any fecklessness about process, he or she will make cake :) Unfourtunately, we finished our project without having to cake :-P

After we determined the subject, we searched resources about our focus by alone. Because beginning of the project, we need to find all stuff and then we need to put them together.

Our subject was "school drop-outs, in a comparative study between Mauritius, the Netherlands and Turkey".  By drop-out we mean the children have skipped classes to such a degree that the school had officially deleted them from their register, and no other school or equal establishment has taken them in. And we chose Mauritius, the Netherlands and Turkey for comparison because three country was enough to comparative.

In second meeting, we met our tutor and he said yes to our subject and also what we did so the process of project was started and lasted on 15/10. We had to give our project this day. The project took four weeks.

We restricted our subject with the basic of the education system, statistics of drop-out, reasons for drop outs and whose responsibility. Our findings were very interesting and also too much but we had to sum up them because of limit on pages. In order to do this, we really studied hard and it was not easy :) We tried to focus on basic and important things.

I think my group is really empathetic because in every meeting we shared our all findings and then decided what we will do till next meeting and then we left. Our project was came up step by step in each meeting and I think we studied regularly and well-disciplined.

We also prepared a presentation about drop-out and presented it to the class. According to plan, we presented it to four groups and also teachers. We were the last group however the day was really good despite being a long day :) I really enjoyed all presentation and of course ours :)

Finally I want to share some information about drop-outs. In all three countries, this disipline punishment is implemented but statistics of it are different and it depends on lots of reasons such as environmental factors, socio-economically disadvantadeg families, language barriers etc... End of the project, we discussed this application and we decided that drop-out is not a solution to get through problems on schools. Instead of this, school administration should take preventative measures to end problems. This can be better than drop-out.

Yeah, that's it however these words can not be described our process, you shoul live it to see what happened :)

Thanks all my frineds ;)